Quizzed About Chechnya, Angry Putin Strikes Back

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin lashed out at a reporter who questioned the Kremlin’s war in Chechnya, challenging the journalist to convert to Islam and come to Moscow for circumcision.

At a news conference after a European Union summit Monday, Putin also said Chechen rebels want to kill all non-Muslims and establish an Islamic state in Russia.

Putin became agitated after a reporter from the French newspaper Le Monde questioned his troops’ tactics in the war in the breakaway region of Chechnya, which is predominantly Muslim.

“If you want to become an Islamic radical and have yourself circumcised, I invite you to come to Moscow,” Putin said. “I would recommend that he who does the surgery does it so you’ll have nothing growing back afterward.” Circumcision is a tenet of Islam for all males.

Because of poor translation, Putin’s remarks were not immediately understood by the 450 journalists at the news conference or by senior EU officials. Putin brought his own interpreters, and even the native Russian speakers were unable to keep pace with his rapid-fire delivery.

Details of what Putin said were revealed Tuesday when Associated Press translated an audiotape of the event.

EU spokesman Jonathan Faull, who was not at the news conference, said that if reports of the remarks were true, they were “entirely inappropriate.”

The translation showed Putin issuing a broadside against the Chechen rebels.

“They talk about setting up a worldwide [Islamic state] and the need to kill Americans and their allies,” Putin said. “They talk about the need to kill all ... non-Muslims, or ‘crusaders,’ as they put it. If you are a Christian, you are in danger.”

In Moscow, the daily Kommersant said the summit “ended in a serious scandal” because of Putin’s comments, which Kremlin aides said came in response to a “provocative question.”